Monotony
by Damned Lolita
Summary: What happens if you abandon the Pokemon you loved so much in childhood? What happens if you never restarted the game, and left them to die alone?


(A short little oneshot, mostly brought on by the fact that I found my old Crystal I never reset ages ago. Not my first one, a cheap one that I didn't use much. But it got me to thinking about what happened when a trainer doesn't reset their game. So enjoy! I don't own, okay?)

* * *

Master. My Master. 

Do you know how long it has been? Many years. So many years. I stopped keeping count at five, though they've discovered two new countries by this point, so I assume it's been much longer.

Time passes, even in this world. We've all stayed here, trying to comprehend why you left. Didn't get many answers, except ones we shoved to the back of our minds because you were my master, and you'd _never_ do that.

What do I know?

I'm just a _Pokemon._

That's all I ever was to you, wasn't it? "Look," you'd say proudly, that presumptuous grin on your face, "My Umbreon." They'd all stop and stare. Such a rare pokemon! Such a display of love between trainer and pokemon! A rare Friendship Evolution!

My _goodness._

Did I ever love you? Let me think... When I was an Eevee kit, handed over to you by Bill, did I love you? Yes, indeed I did. You were so strong. I wanted to be just like you. You were a god in my eyes.

And do you know, you never _really _escape religion. Though it kills me to say this, Master, you are my God. I knew no other.

We battled. Oh, how we battled. You gave orders to me. I did not think. Such blasphemy in a Pokemon is inexcusable. A crime against Arceus and Mew. Our first rule in the wild is to survive, to kill to live. It's a fine life, but it disgusted you. You perverted our rule, made it your own.

The rule of the wild was kill or be killed. The rule of domestication was obey or be killed.

Thoughts? Bah, blaspheme against our rulers! Wrong to think. Too _hard _to think. Better to obey and be wrong, then to die defiant, and be _right. _

Irony, that the wrongs of our world were so close to yours. Yet we never saw eye-to-eye, like equals. You made sure we stayed down.

You always wanted order over chaos. You defied the law of our world, and you attempted to tame the untamable. You raised the vicious Fossil Beings, the Dead Ones. You raised me. A Dark-type.

Did it ever _once _occur to you I might've been happier staying an Eevee? No. I suppose not.

You always loved to break the strong. You didn't care how, but you would bring the most powerful of us pokemon to their knees. You lived for it, to see us squirm in your grasp. Loved the power you felt you had.

But one day...

You stopped.

You never came back.

You left us all here. Your Feraligatr, dumb brute you raised him to be, has departed a long time ago. Went searching for his 'Master'. Perhaps he's dead. Good, I never liked him.

You never raised the Egg the Daycare Man gave you. You deposited the poor Pichu in the box like you didn't care she was a baby.

I suspect you didn't.

She's terrified without a mother. I try, I try, but what can I do?

We're all bedraggled excuses for Pokemon by this point. Ariados went insane a couple years back.

He tried to eat Pidgeot alive, and so we killed him. It took about four of us. He was a very strong pokemon. You raised him well, though I think the insanity helped somewhat.

You never left us with any food. So we ate him, praying to Mew the poison wouldn't kill us.

It didn't, but I think most of us wish it had.

It's the monotony, really. The endless waiting, wishing, hoping.

Your legends are far gone. What good were they? Narcissistic bastards left us. Lugia, Ho-Oh, even Celebi, they all disappeared and left us, their underling Pokemon, behind.

Most of the younger ones starved to death before we realized you were gone. Your fault. Us older pokemon, we hunted. But we could only find Pokemon to kill, and this was sacrilege, eating our brothers and sisters.

I have heard the tales of this place called Johto. After six years, it swallows you up. You're gone forever.

Why didn't you just play a little longer? Could've killed us all and been done with it. Would've been so nice just to die.

It's the killing, the endless killing to survive. You conditioned us to obey you, but now that you're gone, we have no one to obey.

It's the monotony, endless days on an island in the middle of nowhere, waiting for help that's never going to come.

It's the hatred, the endless hatred we have for one another because we all think it's each other's fault you left, Master.

It's giving up, Master, giving up. We're giving up.

Slowly. Our bodies will die slowly. They'll eat themselves in a frantic final bid to survive.

Our minds will die even slower, ravaging themselves just like Ariados' did. We'll go insane. And we will die, alone and unkempt, and we will still hope you're coming back. To our final breath.

We're just remnants of your former glory, aren't we? You don't care anymore. You're a past we'd like to forget, now that you're all grown up.

We never grew up. We stayed in your game, immortal, unchanging. I haven't grown any stronger in so long. My bones ache.

God, when did I get so_ old_?

Once we were glorious. But then, you were the only one of us given any credit for it, weren't you?

Did you ever really need us? If you needed us, you would've stayed. We would've served you for all of our days, standing unthinkingly by your side, unaware you didn't care.

Wait.

_Wait._

I hear you.

Master, you've come back! Really, really have come back, really, truly—

You _did _care!

* * *

_A boy, not quite a man, not quite a teen, is rummaging through things to bring to college, and he opens an old, musty box. A small electronic box, a Gameboy Color, stares blankly back up at him. He notes that the game is Pokemon Crystal. _

"_Why not? For old time's sake..." He shrugs, _and_ switches it on._

_It's been almost six years. He's played almost a hundred hours. _

_But he doesn't know this. _

_Too bad.

* * *

_

My master.

He's grown, but I can tell it's my master. He's gotten so much taller. He came back. For me, just maybe?

He looks confused. "Umbreon?" He says softly. He stares. "I..."

Pretty poison. There is no cure for time.

The clock goes tick, tick, tick...

'_Time: 100:00'_

And my world collapses.

The entire thing goes –_blink blink blink black black black_—

-_Beeeeeeep.-_

Master, what did you _do? _Why did you come back, only to kill me?

Too cruel, too cruel! I had just had my last glimpse—

Please, allow me one more glimpse of my Master before I die—Master, save me! LET ME KNOW I MEANT SOMETHING! PLEASE JUST TELL ME I MEANT SOMETHING, MASTER—

Silence. He's gone.

And so am I.

* * *

_The boy-man stares, confused. _

_Then a smile blossoms on his face._

"_Oh, yeah," He says softly, "Forgot about the glitch."_


End file.
